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Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

Page 40 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Good to see some new (and old) names on the podium today. It was about time that the french women had some success. Bescond has shown super ski form on several occasions and also managed 2nd fastest course time today, +9s behind Domracheva. Good for Henkel too. She really deserved a podium this season.
In the overall, we will inevitably see a change after the pursuit saturday. For some reason, Soukalová was disqualified today and therefore won't make it to the pursuit unfortunately. That means no points to her and Berger/Domracheva is around 15 points back. A shame for the competition, but luckily its only one race, and Soukalová still won't be that far back to catch up after Sochi :) .
 
The breech of Gabi's rifle broke before the prone. She managed to shoot 4/5 but had to pick up reserve rifle for the standing shoot. Shot 1/5 but later was DQ'd, at the moment I don't know why.

Edit: When picking up the reserve rifle she took off her regular rifle before stopping completely. That is the reason for the DQ.
 
Cance > TheRest said:
Good to see some new (and old) names on the podium today. It was about time that the french women had some success. Bescond has shown super ski form on several occasions and also managed 2nd fastest course time today, +9s behind Domracheva. Good for Henkel too. She really deserved a podium this season.
In the overall, we will inevitably see a change after the pursuit saturday. For some reason, Soukalová was disqualified today and therefore won't make it to the pursuit unfortunately. That means no points to her and Berger/Domracheva is around 15 points back. A shame for the competition, but luckily its only one race, and Soukalová still won't be that far back to catch up after Sochi :) .

Two races. DQ means she's out of the pursuit too.
 
Mr. Brooks said:
Here's a taste, giving you the gist of it. It's my poor translation, don't blame Ulvang.

“During my first FIS congress in Prague 1998 one of the key issues was how long the sprint races should be. The central European countries and Finland argued for a separate discipline with distances between 800 and 1000 meters, while Norway feared that a short sprint would lead to two completely separate disciplines. The compromise was something in between (1.2-1.6 km).

Elite sport at this level is entertainment. The entertainment value is probably just as big if we race 500 m or 2.5 km, but the physiological requirements are very different. While athletics has traditions and is large enough to market heroes on all events from 100 m to the marathon, I think we will benefit from keeping the family together. Therefore, numerous decisions in recent years have tried to make sprint more of an endurance discipline. Six and six in the finals and the system of "lucky losers" have led to greater speed in the quarter and semifinals and the maximum length for sprint races is increased from 1.6 to 1.8 km. The result is that a few runners with exceptional characteristics such as Petter Northug, Dario Cologna, Markus Hellner and Axel Teichmann can fight for victory in all disciplines from sprint to the 50K. …. Without these racers who collect World Cup points in all disciplines, the World Cup would have been reduced to a political tug of war over how many races to count in each single discipline, rather than being a competition for who’s the season's best all-around runner.”

Thanks.

Personally i think 1.5km is fine as it gives both endurance guys as well as real sprinters a shot.
 
The winner of the freestyle sprint of the Norwegian championship iiiiiis:


Andrew Musgrawe GBR(Scottland)!:D

He won the prologue and in the final ahead of Hattestad and Krogh.


It was snowy, with horrible conditions which Andrew was the most adept at utilizing.

We Norwegians bow to our Scottish overlords.:D
 
Lukas Hofer the most surprising winner in a long time. Good for the italians. His ski speed is unbelievable...
I can't see anyone challenging him right now, when looking at the rest of the skiers

Edit: Schemp got it with 0.3s. I honestly didnt expect that. Good day for the germans
 
Cance > TheRest said:
Lukas Hofer the most surprising winner in a long time. Good for the italians. His ski speed is unbelievable...
I can't see anyone challenging him right now, when looking at the rest of the skiers

Edit: Schemp got it with 0.3s. I honestly didnt expect that. Good day for the germans

Biathlonworld has Hofer and Schempp with the same time now as winners. I guess that had to be fixed, hadn't it? :) But still unofficial.
 
Cance > TheRest said:
Lukas Hofer the most surprising winner in a long time. Good for the italians. His ski speed is unbelievable...
I can't see anyone challenging him right now, when looking at the rest of the skiers

Edit: Schemp got it with 0.3s. I honestly didnt expect that. Good day for the germans

A lot less surprising than yesterday.

About time Hofer won one.
 
roundabout said:
A lot less surprising than yesterday.

About time Hofer won one.

He hasn't showed anything this year, except having one of the fastest course time in the Ruhpolding relay. His best year was his first one, where he achieved a 12th position in the overall. His best WC competition result until this one was a 2nd place in the sprint in the Khanty Mansyisk last year, where he was no where near the victory +40sec behind MFourcade with similar shootings.
So yes, it was a giant surprise, but a good one. It's good to have an italian winning.
Other than that, I dont understand why he and Schemp have been handed the same time. Schemp was 0.3sec faster... Obviously the graphics on the screen must have been wrong.
 
Hofer has been poised to break out for some time, but had been not quite getting there for so long I thought he never would. Schempp is perhaps more of a surprise, though he did shoot clear. The bigger shock is Arnd Peiffer - who two or three years ago could be as quick as anybody on the trails but wasn't all that reliable in the range, and was 4th in the GWC twice - rediscovering his mojo, and on the less selective Antholz trails too... very close times this week, which makes the pursuits extremely open.
 
Cance > TheRest said:
He hasn't showed anything this year, except having one of the fastest course time in the Ruhpolding relay. His best year was his first one, where he achieved a 12th position in the overall. His best WC competition result until this one was a 2nd place in the sprint in the Khanty Mansyisk last year, where he was no where near the victory +40sec behind MFourcade with similar shootings.
So yes, it was a giant surprise, but a good one. It's good to have an italian winning.
Other than that, I dont understand why he and Schemp have been handed the same time. Schemp was 0.3sec faster... Obviously the graphics on the screen must have been wrong.

Double Junior World Champion.

3 top 10s this year before today.
 
roundabout said:
Double Junior World Champion.

3 top 10s this year before today.

It's good that he got his win (shared or not). But he's a surprise winner, no matter how you see this. 3 top 10's this year is in no way bad results, but it's not striking and, let's be honest, Hofer hasn't been strikingly good up until today. Just like in road cycling, junior world championships is hardly an indication of whether or not you are going to be succesful as a professional in biathlon.
Can you honestly say that he was among your top 5 favourites for the win today? I doubt it.. Most people would probably have expected Fourcade, Bjørndalen or Fak to take the victory today.

So whether you want it or not, he was a surprise winner.
 
It's good that he is now merely a surprise winner.

My point is that he could always ski fast and shoot fast. It just took longer for him to break through (as in getting a win, getting a Worlds medal at 21 was his real breakthrough )

http://data.biathlonworld.com/data/archives.aspx?RaceId=BT0809JWRLCH__JMSP

And a year later he was one of the fastest skiers in the WC aged 21.

So he always had the ability no matter the competition.
 
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a little more than 3 hours left to the start of sprints in szklarska poreba and - guess what - not one norwegian name in the start list (well, american bjornsen does not count as he's as norwegian as bobikov is canadian :p)

and another funny coincidence (is it :confused:), neither of 2 eurosport channels for the first time this season will broadcast a word cup xc race :mad:

a determined fan of xc skiing like myself will still find the way to watch, but it sad that libertine seguros' of the world seem to prevail :p
 
Well, if the broadcasters follow my lead, then maybe the FIS can withdraw from their Unipublic-esque "let's make every race a sprint! The calendar will only be balanced when there are as many sprints as all other kinds of races put together!" take on it, where instead of short, middle and long distances all meriting equal consideration with sprints, where instead of sprints, mass starts and individual starts balancing against one another, all races that are not sprints are some vague homologous concept called "distance" and need to be balanced 50-50 with sprints.

I call out Unipublic for an awfully unbalanced race route when they put MTFs in nearly 50% of the stages of the Vuelta, so why shouldn't I call out FIS for an awfully unbalanced calendar when they put sprints in nearly 50% of the XC calendar?

I'd still rather watch sprints with several top names missing than yet more fricking Tennis, which seems to be taking over Eurosport at the moment, mind.
 
Real skiing

If you want to see some real skiing, we have mens 15+15 km champs today with 148 starters!

I think it should be available outside Norway:

http://www.nrk.no/sport/sendeplan/

Select channel sport 5 or NRK1. NRK1 might be blocked while sport 5 is supposed to be open.

Started 12:30 CET

So far one broken ski.

Some guys really need to impress to make the olympics.

If Northug can be dumped before the sprint, this is the race for it to happen. Haard conditions.

Andrew Musgrave is still in the front pack. He has bib 16. at 10km he is +5sec
 
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ToreBear said:
If you want to see some real skiing, we have mens 15+15 km champs today with 148 starters!

I think it should be available outside Norway:

http://www.nrk.no/sport/sendeplan/

Select channel sport 5 or NRK1. NRK1 might be blocked while sport 5 is supposed to be open.

Started 12:30 CET

So far one broken ski.

Some guys really need to impress to make the olympics.

If Northug can be dumped before the sprint, this is the race for it to happen. Haard conditions.

Andrew Musgrave is still in the front pack. He has bib 16. at 10km he is +5sec
thanks. it is snowing pretty hard it seems. northug is still there at 9th. my bet is roethe.
 
That was fun!:D I think those selecting have some thinking to do. I think Eliassen, Sveen, Tønseth and Østensen are fighting for one spot I think.


As for dropping Northug, Well done to Røthe and Sundby!:)

Still the distance between Northug and Sundby/Røthe at the end indicates to me that in this event in Sochi, dropping Northug will be very, very difficult.



And the one selected to join the olympics squad, Tønseth is the chosen one.
 
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actually the dicisive move was started by sundby. roethe was the only one who was able to follow.

the reason i was betting on roethe, which almost panned out, was that he is in my view, a a very slightly better skater when the vertical stuff gets steep and hard. steep it sure was and the fresh snow made it plenty hard.

sunddy is just a monster this year and i hope he will shut down the northug phenomena for at least another season. he richly deserves it and he's a better sportsman, if not a better gentleman.

oh, i just listened to roether...he said the fight is not over. i wish i was interviewed by the baby with the microphone.
 
python said:
actually the dicisive move was started by sundby. roethe was the only one who was able to follow.

the reason i was betting on roethe, which almost panned out, was that he is in my view, a a very slightly better skater when the vertical stuff gets steep and hard. steep it sure was and the fresh snow made it plenty hard.

sunddy is just a monster this year and i hope he will shut down the northug phenomena for at least another season. he richly deserves it and he's a better sportsman, if not a better gentleman.

oh, i just listened to roether...he said the fight is not over. i wish i was interviewed by the baby with the microphone.

Røthe actually took over pulling when sundby showed signs of slowing down.

But he was my favorite too, for the same reason, better technique.;) I thought he would get him in the sprint but, guess not.

As for Northug vs Sundby gentlemanliness, remember that is media hype. Northug has a media face to protect his shy and withdrawn self. Though as he gets older he seems to have started letting down his guard.

Yes Ida is a cutie.:D
 
python said:
actually the dicisive move was started by sundby. roethe was the only one who was able to follow.

the reason i was betting on roethe, which almost panned out, was that he is in my view, a a very slightly better skater when the vertical stuff gets steep and hard. steep it sure was and the fresh snow made it plenty hard.

sunddy is just a monster this year and i hope he will shut down the northug phenomena for at least another season. he richly deserves it and he's a better sportsman, if not a better gentleman.

oh, i just listened to roether...he said the fight is not over. i wish i was interviewed by the baby with the microphone.
Sundby was the one that went to the move and made the group hurt, Røthe in second place in the group, I looked away, came back and Røthe was on the front and both had opened up a gap, so I guess I assumed Røthe had capitalised on Sundby's move to pull the two away rather than he had taken over after Sundby's move had already pulled them away.
 

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